This original sixpence dates from 1819, the year in which Queen Victoria was born. Queen Victoria’s father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, was the fourth son of George III and she inherited the throne because her three uncles – George VI, Frederick Duke of York and William IV – had no legitimate children who survived.

Sixpences were common currency in the eighteenth century and in a time when £1 equalled 20 shillings and 1 shilling equalled 12 pence, the sixpence was effectively a half-shilling coin. In the eighteenth century, a minimum salary of £40 a year was required to support a family and to live a comfortable life required around £100 a year. Average wages for a carpenter were around 3 shillings a day or £39 a year, renting a house would cost around £10 a year and a standard size loaf of bread cost 5 pence.